This is my yappy place. Sometimes I share my workshop experiences in jewelry-making; sometimes I talk about other things that interest me. I have created tabs along the top of my blog (next to the word home, below this msg) so you can select certain categories if you like.

I’m anxious to find my best phase
two temp so I can start messing around with phase one methods and temps.

I supposed I should confirm that my first test pieces are fully
sintered by doing the sanding test. After
all, I’m keeping the phase one temp at 1420 because of my assumption that the pieces
are sintered.

I was in the middle of an online class when phase two finished,
so I didn’t get to the kiln until it had already cooled to 500 degrees, but I don’t
really think that made any kind of difference.

The 2-cards thick piece had some blistering. The 7-cards thick piece had a lot more blistering.
The 12-cards thick piece had no blistering,
but all three pieces showed pitting on the bottom (the surface facing downward in
the carbon).

The 12-cards thick piece has more pitting because it's heavier than the other pieces so more weight is pressing into the carbon than the lighter pieces.

This is good. We now know
that 1450 works (for these particular bronze pieces) and 1470 is too high.

For my (hopefully) final test of phase two firing schedule for
Brilliant Bronze, I only made one 7-cards thick piece.

The piece is currently in the kiln for phase one, then after
cooling I’ll run phase two at 1460 to determine the final optimal phase two temperature
for mid-fire schedule.